Fixing jail problems to cost more now than during construction

Tuesday

Dec 4, 2012 at 12:01 AMDec 4, 2012 at 7:49 PM

SNOW HILL — Following the swearing-in of Greene County Commissioners James Shackleford and Jerry Jones and appointing Jack Edmundson and Bennie Heath as chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, was a discussion during public comments about problems in the new Greene County Justice Center.

Margaret Fisher / Staff Writer

SNOW HILL — Following the swearing-in of Greene County Commissioners James Shackleford and Jerry Jones and appointing Jack Edmundson and Bennie Heath as chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, was a discussion during public comments about problems in the new Greene County Justice Center.

Monday’s discussion centered around the jail’s new generator and sally port, and a lack of drains in the jail upstairs.

“Was the generator ever turned on to see what it would actually run?” Hookerton EMS volunteer, Susan Blizzard, asked the county board numerous times without getting a direct answer.

“It was just wired to run the jail,” Edmundson said, adding it also runs the lights.

Blizzard asked why the electrical work was not accomplished by the contractor, and why the new generator was hooked up to the old jail and sheriff’s offices.

It was revealed the generator is not hooked up to parts of the communication equipment in the dispatch center nor to the elevator.

Edmundson said the insurance company only requires it to be hooked up to the jail.

Sheriff Lemmie Smith, who was seated in the audience with three staff members, said later the jail lights, automatic doors and control booth are hooked up.

But the CAD system and backup radios in dispatch are not. In a power outage, it’s critical for the elevator and communications systems to be working, he said.

“I was led to believe that everything was going to be hooked up, and communications,” Smith said to the commissioners.

Sharon Marshburn, dispatch supervisor, told the board her department was informed the network server room and the hallway leading to it would be hooked up.

“I’ve got to go down there and run 200 feet of drop cord to plug into dispatch,” she said, “so the dispatch center we have lost — our network, everything else goes out. We lose our radios. We lose everything.

“And we’ve got to run drop cords down to the room, just to get it back up and running. So, you’re looking at 10 minutes, possibly, or more that we don’t have any way of dispatching or doing anything for this county. That’s why we’re upset.”

Blizzard requested the county come up with a list of what was supposed to be hooked up to the generator. County Manager Don Davenport said there wasn’t a list, but Blizzard was welcome to look at the specs.

Blizzard discussed the problems associated with a lack of a roof on the sally port — an enclosed carport with security doors at either end for bringing prisoners to and from the jail to help prevent escapes.

In wet weather, the doors are not operating because the gear boxes are full of water.

“But again, (the sally port is) useless if our weather conditions are not perfect like they are today,” Blizzard said, “and if the doors don’t open and close.”

Edmundson said commissioners told the architect to put drains in the cell blocks. He said later the drains, among other things, were taken out of the original plan to cut costs.

In a telephone interview, Edmundson said he has since discovered the flooding was due to inmates stopping up the commodes and turning the water on. The incidents happened shortly after the justice center began taking Lenoir County inmates and again about two weeks ago, he said.

There needs to be a switch in the observation center that overlooks the four cell blocks to turn the water off, Edmundson said.

Blizzard asked the board whether the contractor was to blame or the county is responsible to fix the problems.

“It’s a county issue,” Davenport said. “The bids were done according to the specs.”

Edmundson said there wasn’t anything left out intentionally.

Blizzard surmised the problems would have been less expensive to correct during construction than fixing them now.

“It’s going to take more money now, but it wasn’t in the contract to do so,” Davenport said about the generator issues.

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com.